All I Want
Sep. 29th, 2007 05:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thessalianI don't want much out of players, you know. I really don't. I don't think that the following are too much to ask:
1) Read the core rules at least, and preferably the kithbook of the kith you're rolling up as well (unless it's Boggan - Boggans don't have one, for some reason). Read the site guidelines on character generation and all other stuff that Changelings in London would know at the start. Most of all (and it bears repeating), READ THE CORE RULES AT MINIMUM! I'm tired of getting character submissions where a character's been living in Redcap-infested Islington for months, when they'd have been run out of town while flat-hunting if they weren't outright eaten or something. I'm appalled at the one character that slipped through the net whose Kinain little sister carted a cold iron frying pan around, keeping it in the same house with one of the Kithain. I'm fed up with people who keep listing their characters as Wilder when the site guidelines, the core rules and simple logic all dictate that the character's too old to be a Wilder. I've seen wild misunderstandings of legacies, kith, various backgrounds and merits, and I don't understand why in the name of all that's holy these people don't read the book properly if they want to play the game. As for the site guidelines ... I keep meaning to rewrite the character generation guidelines but I get this sinking feeling that it will be a wasted effort because no one reads it anyway.
2) ((Character Personality)) ((Do you have it?)) *ahem* Okay, slips into Auto-Translate-ese aside, please for pity's sake give me some indication that your character has a personality. The easy acceptances are the ones where the submission is more than just a bunch of stats, a vague angst-and-woe background in the purplest prose imaginable and way too many character pictures in the gallery, all of which turned up days before the character submission hit my in-box. I really want to include everybody in the plot, but to do that, I have to know what motivates them. It's impossible to work that out from the Motivations box in the character application most of the time, because things change and motivations are different depending on the situation one finds one's self in, so it's all down to personality. Which often doesn't come out in background. Some people want to play just for the stats, or just because this system is more active than that system and don't seem to have any attachment to their characters at all. Where's the fun in that? Either that or they associate too much with characters of angst and woe ... but that's the next point down.
3) I know that RP is wish fulfilment for an awful lot of people ... but you know what? Not my problem. I'm not going to accept twinked stats without acceptable background information to justify them just because someone wants to play Best Musician Ever. Most of the time, I'm not going to accept twinked stats, full stop. As for angsty backgrounds ... well, I've seen a few that I have accepted, but that's because it was obvious that they expected that angst to be used as a plot hook, not a constant excuse to have everyone cluster around Pretty Pretty Changeling going, "Oh, you poor dear; what's wrong?" and then be led a merry dance for months until they start to lose interest at which point HORRIBLE ANGSTY WOE is unveiled just to get a bit more attention, which perpetuates when the ST finally uses the HORRIBLE ANGSTY WOE as a plot hook and the Pretty Pretty Changeling needs to be protected from the big bad world. Fuck. That.
And as for the ones who just have to have a character with "that one interesting thing that makes them special" as a constant hook? Y'know what? It doesn't work. Everybody is interesting. EVERYBODY. Everyone has some quirk that makes them unique as a human being; that kind of thing comes with rolling up a character. You don't need to have something like, "Originally from some 300 years in the past" or "transsexual ex-Sabbat" or "rape and abuse victim Black Fury who formed a quasi-pack while still a cub" or "Elvis impersonator Satyr" or anything like that in your background to make your character interesting or special. (I mean, c'mon, you're playing a supernatural creature; how much more special do you need, anyway?) And you certainly don't need to hold it over your character's head like a banner to get some attention. The best characters I've ever seen are just ... people, with little quirks that make them funny, that they don't make the cornerstone of their characters. There's more to Meredith than her spiders, for example - more to Gregory than his own disassociation with the modern age.
In short, I want people to man up and put some effort into it! I'm sick of people half-arsedly throwing a character together, particularly when I can't even see that they want to play the system so much as they want a more active audience for the Mary Sue crap.
Anyway. Beyond that, not much new. Cooking level 55 achieved, three more levels to go until I can go for Craftsman. That's going to be fun! Then I need to start saving up more Guild points so I can actually get raw fish handling and make sushi. I also need to do the bug broth thing again because I'm under 80k now (levelling's expensive). Though I suppose I'll at least get up past 80k again when I hand in the Stone Monument impression I finally got in Jugner (nuked two Forest Tigers solo! I rock!), but still. I suppose I'd probably be better off just levelling WHM for awhile so I can finally get my Teleport scrolls and start telewhoring. Then I won't need to spend an hour sitting around Bastok making bug broth.
And now ... random RL cookery. But first, shopping.
1) Read the core rules at least, and preferably the kithbook of the kith you're rolling up as well (unless it's Boggan - Boggans don't have one, for some reason). Read the site guidelines on character generation and all other stuff that Changelings in London would know at the start. Most of all (and it bears repeating), READ THE CORE RULES AT MINIMUM! I'm tired of getting character submissions where a character's been living in Redcap-infested Islington for months, when they'd have been run out of town while flat-hunting if they weren't outright eaten or something. I'm appalled at the one character that slipped through the net whose Kinain little sister carted a cold iron frying pan around, keeping it in the same house with one of the Kithain. I'm fed up with people who keep listing their characters as Wilder when the site guidelines, the core rules and simple logic all dictate that the character's too old to be a Wilder. I've seen wild misunderstandings of legacies, kith, various backgrounds and merits, and I don't understand why in the name of all that's holy these people don't read the book properly if they want to play the game. As for the site guidelines ... I keep meaning to rewrite the character generation guidelines but I get this sinking feeling that it will be a wasted effort because no one reads it anyway.
2) ((Character Personality)) ((Do you have it?)) *ahem* Okay, slips into Auto-Translate-ese aside, please for pity's sake give me some indication that your character has a personality. The easy acceptances are the ones where the submission is more than just a bunch of stats, a vague angst-and-woe background in the purplest prose imaginable and way too many character pictures in the gallery, all of which turned up days before the character submission hit my in-box. I really want to include everybody in the plot, but to do that, I have to know what motivates them. It's impossible to work that out from the Motivations box in the character application most of the time, because things change and motivations are different depending on the situation one finds one's self in, so it's all down to personality. Which often doesn't come out in background. Some people want to play just for the stats, or just because this system is more active than that system and don't seem to have any attachment to their characters at all. Where's the fun in that? Either that or they associate too much with characters of angst and woe ... but that's the next point down.
3) I know that RP is wish fulfilment for an awful lot of people ... but you know what? Not my problem. I'm not going to accept twinked stats without acceptable background information to justify them just because someone wants to play Best Musician Ever. Most of the time, I'm not going to accept twinked stats, full stop. As for angsty backgrounds ... well, I've seen a few that I have accepted, but that's because it was obvious that they expected that angst to be used as a plot hook, not a constant excuse to have everyone cluster around Pretty Pretty Changeling going, "Oh, you poor dear; what's wrong?" and then be led a merry dance for months until they start to lose interest at which point HORRIBLE ANGSTY WOE is unveiled just to get a bit more attention, which perpetuates when the ST finally uses the HORRIBLE ANGSTY WOE as a plot hook and the Pretty Pretty Changeling needs to be protected from the big bad world. Fuck. That.
And as for the ones who just have to have a character with "that one interesting thing that makes them special" as a constant hook? Y'know what? It doesn't work. Everybody is interesting. EVERYBODY. Everyone has some quirk that makes them unique as a human being; that kind of thing comes with rolling up a character. You don't need to have something like, "Originally from some 300 years in the past" or "transsexual ex-Sabbat" or "rape and abuse victim Black Fury who formed a quasi-pack while still a cub" or "Elvis impersonator Satyr" or anything like that in your background to make your character interesting or special. (I mean, c'mon, you're playing a supernatural creature; how much more special do you need, anyway?) And you certainly don't need to hold it over your character's head like a banner to get some attention. The best characters I've ever seen are just ... people, with little quirks that make them funny, that they don't make the cornerstone of their characters. There's more to Meredith than her spiders, for example - more to Gregory than his own disassociation with the modern age.
In short, I want people to man up and put some effort into it! I'm sick of people half-arsedly throwing a character together, particularly when I can't even see that they want to play the system so much as they want a more active audience for the Mary Sue crap.
Anyway. Beyond that, not much new. Cooking level 55 achieved, three more levels to go until I can go for Craftsman. That's going to be fun! Then I need to start saving up more Guild points so I can actually get raw fish handling and make sushi. I also need to do the bug broth thing again because I'm under 80k now (levelling's expensive). Though I suppose I'll at least get up past 80k again when I hand in the Stone Monument impression I finally got in Jugner (nuked two Forest Tigers solo! I rock!), but still. I suppose I'd probably be better off just levelling WHM for awhile so I can finally get my Teleport scrolls and start telewhoring. Then I won't need to spend an hour sitting around Bastok making bug broth.
And now ... random RL cookery. But first, shopping.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-09-29 06:51 pm (UTC)This is a low-powered site, and I do expect a high standard from characters - they have to be well-rounded characters, first and foremost. They have to be "sensible" - to the extent that they won't break the Veil as part of their day-to-day life. And, their character sheet has to reflect the character - both what they can and can't do.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-30 04:41 am (UTC)